"Your pleas for us young people to actually do something disruptive to fight the power" -Hayley B

Aunt Vanessa,

My very first memory of you, as my parents always bring up, was at the Rose Parade when I was a kid - cowering behind you as you balked at the indignant people threatening to call the police on us for taking a seat in “their” section of the sidewalk. I was mortified at the time, but I think back to it often with so much amusement and awe. I was never one for rocking the boat back then. Cut to the bold “hormones happen” shirt you got me one Christmas in high school, the threatening but amused way you looked at my dad when he made a daring joke, the fierce admiration with which you talked about your loved ones, your pleas for us young people to actually do something disruptive to fight the power. I always knew you to be a force, and I have always aspired to have more of that in myself - even just a fraction of your passion, your determination, and your edge.

You showed me what it means to challenge the status quo and be “radical” before I had any understanding of what that really meant or looked like in practice. You taught me what it means to feel like you’re “on the right side of things” versus actually embodying what it means to fight an oppressive system. Although we didn’t speak often, your voice is constantly in my head as I’ve navigated my role in the immigrants’ rights and social justice spaces. Your encouragement as I entered this space has meant the world to me, and I look at you and Rebecca with such admiration for the ways you quietly and fiercely lead in so many ways.

I’m incredibly lucky to know you and to learn so much from you.

All my love,
Hayley B